- Article -
| In Silico Biology 2, 0010 (2002); ©2002, Bioinformation Systems e.V. |
Cellular oscillators in animal segmentation
Johannes Jaeger1 and Brian C. Goodwin2
1
Graduate Program in Genetics, Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794-5222, U.S.A. (to whom correspondence should be sent)
E-mail: yoginho@usa.net
2
Schumacher College, The Old Postern, Dartington, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EA, U.K.
Edited by E. Wingender; received September 29, 2001; revised and accepted December 8, 2001; published January 24, 2002
Abstract
Kinetic modeling of developmental dynamics requires detailed knowledge about genetic and metabolic networks that underlie developmental processes. However, such knowledge is not available for a vast majority of developmental processes. Here, we present an coarse-grained, phenomenological model of periodic pattern formation in multicellular organisms based on cellular oscillators (CO) that can be applied to systems for which little or no molecular data is available. An oscillatory process within cells serves as a developmental clock whose period is tightly regulated by cell-autonomous and non-autonomous mechanisms. A spatial pattern is generated as a result of an initial temporal ordering of the cell oscillators freezing into spatial order as the clocks slow down and stop at different times or phases in their cycles. When applied to vertebrate somitogenesis, the CO model can reproduce the dynamics of periodic gene expression patterns observed in the presomitic mesoderm. Different somite lengths can be generated by altering the period of the oscillation. There is evidence that a CO-type mechanism might also underlie segment formation in certain invertebrates, such as annelids and short germ insects. This suggests that the dynamical principles of sequential segmentation might be equivalent throughout the animal kingdom although most of the genes involved in segment determination differ between distant phyla.
Key words: segmentation, somitogenesis, short-germ band insects, cellular oscillators, phenomenological modeling, coarse-grained modeling, evolution of development, developmental dynamics